Those on trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Linfen City were kiln boss Wang Bingbing, foreman Heng Tinghan and employees Zhao Yanbing, Heng Mingyang and Liu Dongsheng.

An earlier report by Xinhua said that 12 people had been indicted. In fact only five people have so far been indicted while police continue to hunt for other culprits.

The People's Procuratorate of Linfen City said defendants Heng Tinghan, Zhao Yanbing and Liu Dongsheng had been charged with illegal detention and murder, while defendants Heng Mingyang, son of Heng Tinghan, and Wang Bingbing had to face illegal detention charges.

The forced laborers also made demands for compensation from the accused. Shen Haijun, who is suffering from a fractured leg caused by beatings from the kiln owners, has claimed for 17,000 yuan (2,238 U.S. dollars). "This is only the first phase of compensation for medical treatment," Shen said.

Zhang Wenlong, 19, is claiming for 500,000 yuan (65,800 U.S. dollars). "My son was kidnapped and taken to the kiln and forced to work there against his will," said the father of Zhang, who is still in hospital with severe burns.

Public prosecutors alleged that Heng Tinghan, a native of central China's Henan Province, and Wang Bingbing, owner of Santiaogou brick kiln in Caosheng Village, Hongtong County began their cooperation in 2006. Heng and Wang agreed that Heng would be responsible for labor and production at the brick kiln owned by Wang.

In the weeks that followed, Heng lured 32 rural laborers from railway stations in Zhengzhou in Henan and Xi'an in Shaanxi as well as Yuncheng in Shanxi Province, promising to help them find jobs, and then forced them to work in the brick kiln at Hongtong County of Shanxi Province.

The workers, whose ages ranged from 14 to 58, were from 12 regions across China. There were seven mentally handicapped people among them.

Heng Tinghan assigned the task of supervising the forced laborers to his son, Heng Mingyang, and two other men, Zhao Yanbing and Liu Dongsheng.

The laborers were forced to work long hours on poor food and no pay. Dogs were used to prevent them from escaping. Many received burns and other injuries working in the hot kiln.

One worker, tentatively identified as Liu Bao from Gansu Province, received blows to the head with an iron shovel because he worked slowly. The mentally handicapped Liu died in November 2006 and was buried in the barren hills behind Wang's brick kiln.

"This is a complicated case involving many people so I doubt there will be a verdict today," said a man surnamed Hu with the court research office.

The use of forced laborers hit the headlines after more than 400 parents in Henan Province posted a call-for-help letter on the internet last month, saying their missing children had been sold to small brick kilns in Shanxi and Henan as forced laborers.

The forced labor scandal sparked a nationwide outcry and the central government ordered immediate investigation.

So far, 359 people, including 12 children, have been rescued from illegal brick kilns in Shanxi and police had arrested 38 people by June 22. They include the widely reported rescue by police on May 27 of 31 people in Wang's brick kiln in Hongtong, a county about 240 km south of Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi.

Police in Henan Province rescued 217 people, including 29 children, and arrested 120 people in a four-day crackdown involving more than 35,000 police checking 7,500 kilns.

Some Chinese netizens have launched a campaign entitled "Blue Ribbon" in a bid to provide clues for those families looking for their children who might have been kidnapped and forced to work in the brick kilns.

So far, at least three forced laborers have returned home with the help of the campaign.